Things are not as they appeared
More work than was expected will be required
A number of years ago when I bought the truck I knew that the original cab was in real bad shape and the previous owners thru in a stripped cab for nothing. The spare cab has been sitting in the corner of the garage taking up space and gathering dust until the rebuild was started in earnest and that day has come.
Looking around this forum’s builds I’ve seen others using stands that they made or acquired to support their cabs for working on and I liked this approach. Not wanting to build or buy a stand I looked around my shop to see if I might have something that would work and getting more use out of my equipment than what it was bought for is a benefit for me. I have some movable scaffolding 6 foot long x 2-1/2 foot wide x 6 foot tall rated at 500 pound load capable. Not knowing the weight of the cab, I might be over loading the stand some what but I think it will work and make working on the cab a lot easer. Just used my cherry picker, engine hoist, and some angel iron attached to the seat mounting holes to lift the cab on to the stand (it’s a two man job but went smoothly).
With the cab off the ground and making it easer to inspect it for damage and work needing to be done I found what I would call a failed repair to the driver’s side rocker panel. I new that the rear corner panels (both sides) and fwd floor corners where going to need repair but the rust has penetrated more areas, inner rocker panels up to the floor and fwd lower pillar. The use of foam by the previous owner, I would say was not of benefit and may have added to the problems. I can see foam and rust on the passenger side fwd lower pillar, the rocker panel on this side looks to be from the factory but just my guess that this side is in just as bad shape as the drivers.
Repair panels for both sides are on order from Wess at Classic Heartbeat Pickup Parts and will write and show them later.
The additional work not foreseen at the beginning of this build is starting to add up but I’m not going to start cutting corners now just to get the truck done and have to deal with it later on. Hope you have the time and resources to make your build right the first time. Yes I can remember my younger days when I was building my primary driver and needing to keep it on the road or get it back on the road as soon as possible. Good luck on your builds